Alfred Comyn Lyall
Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall, GCIE, KCB (4 January 1835 - 11 April 1911) was an Anglo-Indian poet, literary historian, and British civil servant. Life Youth Lyall was born at Coulsdon in Surrey, the second son of Mary Drummond (Broadwood) (daughter of James Shudi Broadwood) and Alfred Lyall. He was educated at Eton. His elder brother was already serving with the military in India, and this may have influenced him towards a career in that direction. He attended Haileybury College with that purpose in mind. Indian career After Eton and Haileybury, he joined the Indian Civil Service in 1856, and served a long career in India, He landed at Calcutta in January 1856. After four months training he was posted as an Assistant Magistrate at Bulandshahr in the Doab (forty miles from Delhi, a district in the Meerut Division of the Lieutenant-Governorship of the North-West Provinces). He was there when the Indian Mutiny broke out the following year. His house was burnt down and he was nearly killed when fleeing as his horse was shot under him. He joined the Khaki Risala of Volunteers, an irregular European cavalry unit. He helped pacify Bulandshahr. In May 1858 he was transferred to Shahjehanpur where he helped restore order. In April 1861 he returned to England for about 18 months. He married Cornelia Arnoldina Cloete (?1836-1913) at Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk on November 12, 1862. They had 4 children (2 sons and 2 daughters). On his return to India he was appointed Assistant Manager at Agra. In 1864 he was appointed District Manager of Nagpur at Hoshungabad in the Central Provinces, before being appointed Commissioner in Berar in1867. He was now earning £3,000 a year. He went on to become Home Secretary to the Government of India in 1873 and the Governor-General's agent in the state of Rajputana the following year. His next post was as Foreign Secretary to Government of India from 1878 to 1881 (during this period he helped negotiate peace and a monarchy in Afghanistan). He was then appointed Lieutenant-Governor of North West Provinces, and Chief Commissioner of Oudh (North-West Provinces) from 1882 to 1887 (he introduced a degree of local self-government to that area). He also founded the University of Allabad and became its first Chancellor. Later Years Lyall retired in 1887, returned to England, and lived in London until his death. His Verses Written in India was published in 1889. He wrote a number of other books on poetry. He wrote also books on Indian history, Warren Hastings, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. He died in 1911 while on a sojourn to Fairford, the home of Tennyson in Freshwater, Isle of Wight. Family Their second daughter Mary Evelina (1868–1948) married the Indian civil servant John Ontario Miller (1857–1943). His uncles included George Lyall (1779–1853) Chairman of the East India Company in 1830, and William Rowe Lyall (1788–1857), Dean of Canterbury (1845–1857). His brother, James Broadwood Lyall (1838–1916), also served in the Indian Civil Service, becoming Lieutenant-Governor] of the Punjab. His sister Mary Sybilla (1836–1891) was married to Francis James Holland (1828–1907), canon at Canterbury Cathedral. Writing by Thomas Humphry Ward Though Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall’s chief claim to remembrance, other than the deep impression that he has left in the minds of his many friends, lies in his brilliant Indian administration and his masterly essays on Eastern religions, his little volume of verse ought by no means to be forgotten. It stands alone by reason of its vivid expression of Indian thought, old and new, and of its deep insight into Indian character. In form, too, the poems are admirable, though some of those written between 1864 and 1870 are a little too Swinburnian in rhythm and some of the rhymes are such as to shock the critical ear. The poems are alike concerned with that problem of the ultimate meaning of the world — of Life, Death and Destiny — on which Lyall’s own mind, like that of his Indian mystics, was ever working. But, did space permit, it would be easy to show that he carried his researches and his meditations on this and kindred themes through other lands and other literatures. In "Joab Speaketh" we realize the doubts as to the justice of things which must have beset many a Hebrew warrior; in the charming story of "The Monk and the Bird" we have a mediæval assertion of faith rewarded; while in "Pilate’s Wife’s Dream" the poet gives us a picture of the longing of a Roman woman to be saved from “madness and magic,” and to be free, once and for all, from the deep, perplexing, insoluble problems that were for ever vexing the soul of the East.from Thomas Humphrey Ward, "Critical Introduction: Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911)," The English Poets (edited by Thomas Humphry Ward). New York & London: Macmillan, 1880-1918. Bartleby.com, Web, Sep. 23, 2013 Recognition Lyall was made an honorary fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1893. His literary achievements brought him advanced degrees, a D.C.L. from Oxford in 1889 and an LL.D. from Cambridge in 1891, and membership in the British Academy in 1902. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) in 1887, Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1881 and Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE) in 1896. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1902, having served on the India Council from 1888 to 1902. Publications Poetry *''Verses Written in India. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1889. *Poems. London: Routledge / New York: Dutton, 1907. Non-fiction *Asiatic Studies: Religious and social.'' London: John Murray, 1882. 2nd edn., London: John Murray, 1884. **''Asiatic Studies: Religious and social in India, China & Asia: Second series.'' London: John Murray, 1899. **''Asiatic Studies: Religious and social: Being a selection from essays published under that title in 1882 and 1889.'' London: Watts, 1907. *''The Rise of the British Dominion in India. London: John Murray, 1893; New York: Scribner, 1893. *Warren Hastings. London & New York: Macmillan (English Men of Action Series), 1889; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970. *Natural Religion in India. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1891. *Tennyson. London & New York: Macmillan (English Men of Letters series), 1902. *(contributor) ''The History of India: From the close of the seventeenth century to the present time (edited by Abraham Valentine Williams Jackson). (9 volumes), London: Grolier Society, 1907; New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1987. *''The Life of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava''. (2 volumes), London: John Murray, 1905. Volume I, Volume II *''Studies in Literature and History'' (published posthumously) London: John Murray, 1915; Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Alfred Comyn Lyall, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 23, 2013. See also * List of Indian poets writing in English References *Henry Mortimer Durand, The Life of Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1913. Notes External links ;Poems *"Meditations of a Hindu Prince" in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895 *"I am the God of the Sensuous Fire" * from "Siva" * Selected Poetry of Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall (1835-1911) (2 poems) at Representative Poetry Online *Lyall in The English Poets: An anthology: "Theology in Extremis," "Meditations of a Hindu Prince" * Alfred Comyn Lyall at PoemHunter (4 poems) *Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall at Poetry Nook (25 poems) ;Books * *Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall at the Online Books Page ;About *Lyall, Sir Alfred Comyn in the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica]] * Lyall, Sir Alfred Comyn in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biogaphy *''Life of the Right Hon. Sir Alfred Comyn Lyall, P.C., K.C.B., G.C.I.E., D.C.L., LL. D'' by Sir Henry Mortimer Durand Category:1835 births Category:1911 deaths Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Indian Civil Service officers Category:English poets Category:People from Coulsdon Category:Members of the Council of India Category:Indian poets Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Anglo-Indian people